A Giant Artifact From The Ancient World Has Been Lurking In This Lake For Centuries

A Giant Artifact From The Ancient World Has Been Lurking In This Lake For Centuries



Lake Iznik in Turkey has been holding onto some secrets for centuries. Thanks to some aerial photographs, archaeologists have realized that the Turkish lake holds the sunken ruins of an ancient church and perhaps even a pagan temple, Live Science reports.

Back in 2014, the local government of Bursa Province took some aerial survey shots of the lake in the town of İznik in northern Turkey. Mustafa Şahin, a professor of archaeology at Uludağ University in Turkey, came across the images and quickly realized that an unusual structure was lurking beneath clear waters: the ruins of a vast church. Şahin and the Lake Iznik Excavation Archive have been rooting around the waters ever since, slowly but surely unraveling the story of this mysterious structure.

Over four years after it was first discovered, the site is now being turned into an underwater archaeological museum and hopes to earn a place on the UNESCO World Heritage List. More recent excavation work on the area is also hinting that the church, dated to when this part of Turkey was part of the Roman empire, might have been constructed on top of an ancient pagan temple.

The sunken ruins lay just 3 meters (10 feet) below the surface of the water and about 50 meters (160 feet) from the shore. Around the edge of the structure, there are many rough stones, which could provide some clues as to the story of the church’s demise.

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https://www.iflscience.com/environment/a-giant-artifact-from-the-ancient-world-has-been-lurking-in-this-lake-for-centuries/